Investigation of Fatigue Crack Propagation in Nickel Superalloy Using Diffraction Contrast Tomography and Phase Contrast Tomography

Evaluation of superalloy component life in turbine engines requires a detailed understanding of how fatigue crack initiation and short crack propagation contribute to fatigue life. However most investigations have been carried out post-mortem and in two dimensions. New techniques are able to fully resolve cracks propagating in four dimensions (space and time), enabling characterisation of their local environments and allowing a much deeper understanding of fatigue mechanics. Nickel-based superalloys experiencing high cycle fatigue have shown a high sensitivity to microstructure during initiation and short crack propagation. Using high energy X-rays and the combination of Diffraction Contrast Tomography (DCT) and Phase Contrast Tomography (PCT), we followed a fatigue crack initiated from a Focused Ion Beam (FIB) milled notch at room temperature. Analyses have been carried out to fully characterise the crack and its environment. We tracked the evolution of the crack and interactions with the microstructure. Subsequently, post-mortem investigations have been carried out to corroborate results obtained from the tomographs and to provide more local information of fatigue crack propagation.